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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Must have been strange for the English pub owner to see an Asian girl walk in every hour to use their bathroom and then order a pint. Would they ever know you were just felt obligated to buy something which in turn, will make you go to the lady's room again when you were there just to play a piano in a cold dark church? They would have thought you were crazy! But we don't.

Farmgirl, you made me laugh with your story! And the cold in the church did not help you...

I had my lesson today. Apart from having butchered Bach (I could not focus on it, I don't know why), I'm happy because I got a compliment from the teacher: she told me she is really satisfied to have me as a student, because in her experience adults are seldom much dedicated and find a lot of excuses for not doing homework, while I'm dedicated and organized. She teaches mainly children and teens, so her experience with adults students is not so wide, but still I got my moment of glory!

N17 – thanks for your comment on my discipline…. I’m good at practicing/playing every day – but it is only recently that my practice is becoming properly disciplined in the sense of really and truly practicing well! Congrats on getting your recording system set up! I’ll look forward to hearing what you submit !!!

SwissMS – thanks (read above for my observations on self-discipline :)) I’m happy to hear how much fun you have been having with your wonderfully different genres and objectives!

Angelsong – The Entertainer is such a great piece, have fun with it!

JimF: Well it takes some of us (me I mean) a long time to come to grips with slow practice. What seems slow is in fact still too fast most of the time. I’m very much looking forward to hearing your Jarrett piece!

Rmaple – practicing every day is great! Good for you! Loved hearing about your breakthrough moments on Schindler’s List!

EarlofMar – Which Chopin are you working on?

Malkin- sounds like your Alfred book is really being worked over! Maybe you need to get it re-bound ;

SandTiger – you’re so methodical! I like your strategies for reducing stress and tension!

FarmGirl – a bit of indulgence, once in a while, is good for the soul – especially when you are sick and your hubby isn’t home to pamper you. Take care and feel better soon!

Jotur – you always seem to be having so much fun with your music – it makes me smile to hear it. At the moment, all I do with lead sheets is blocked chords. Very very boring…..

Torquenale – That’s really nice that your teacher notices and appreciates your dedication and hard work! You are changing her perception of what an adult student can be! Brava!

And my AOTW is actually….the achievement of the year…or even 2 years. I have been working on “Soldiers’ March” (Gurlitt) . Last week my teacher said- ok, you have it in hand, but now let’s get the dynamics in shape. Note: fortissimo, resolute!! We agreed that my soldiers were slacking off and not at attention….It is hard for me to plunge into playing fortissimo …but I worked on it and yesterday I played it for him. I played it with the fortissimo, resolute, staccato even, dare I say it …jauntily! For the first.time.ever…. he said “GREAT!” when I finished. I’ve had “good” “that’s better” “you’ve improved” but never “great”. I was really really pleased. (so was he).

I also talked to him about another little piece that I’m struggling with. I told him I really don’t understand why I’m having so much difficulty. I played it for him and he replied “ It’s difficult because you are doing what you’re supposed to be doing”. Instead of “trying to perform at all costs” (his words) – I’m going slowly, making sure I’ve got the fingering (and the notes) absolutely right and laying the foundation ….so he was actually quite pleased with my struggling “performance”. And in the end, so was I.

What got me excited this week? Well nothing I did on the piano but rather what my 3 year old granddaughter did last night. She'd been taking music lessons this spring. She took me down stairs to the piano and played a couple notes, one louder than the other. She turned around and looked at me and said; "Thats forte grampa." I was impressed.

My AOTW was hosting another piano party for some of my teacher's students. We had a blast. I played Mendelssohn 30 6 Venetian Boat Song, and Tchaikovsky The Seasons "March". They both went pretty well, though I did have a fuzzy memory spot in the Tchaikovsky. I sort of faked my way through it and got back on track. That is actually the achievement. I think I played through it pretty smoothly, with a couple of chords that probably were not as written. I hope Tchaikovsky didn't mind. At least I kept going in rhythm!

Everyone played very well, in fact, several of them played without error. That is very impressive! It is interesting to me how much nerves play a part. I played the Mendelssohn perfectly while my teacher set up the camera and before everyone sat down to listen. Then when she switched on the camera and everyone settled down in the living room to listen, I made errors. Playing in front of a seated audience is a lot harder than just being background music!

Posted on the Tchaikovsky recital yesterday, first "public" performance in decades.

The pressure to perform online was just enough to make me work hard to get the piece playable but not so much to turn me into a basket-case with pre-performance jitters. I haven't worked so hard on a piece in ages. And practicing really does help (!!) What a revelation.

CasinItaly, progress is always good, especially when confirmed by the teacher.SwissMS, another piano party? It is good to show off those hard won skills. Gingko2, welcome to the thread.

Week 109: I attend a concert featuring Svetlana Smolina on piano. She has a DMA from the University of Michigan. Performs some Schumann, Rachmaninoff, and closes with Strauss' Blue Danube with about a million extra ornamental notes added.

I apply some of the Graham Fitch repetition methodology to composing. Fitch suggests doing three repeats of each segment, adding the first note of the next. Shortening the segments if they are difficult, expanding them as the piece gets learned. I use this idea to find a middle phrase to my new piece Pixie Dust. Another achievement is being able to play from memory a short version of Colder Weather (Zac Brown Band). It is humbling to say that I purchased that sheet music in December, and I am only doing a short version (no bridge, simplified custom arrangement). It would be more humbling to say that I gave up on a relatively simple pop song.

I continue with the Coursera on Musicianship. It continues to show how poor my singing is when trying to do the simple solfege exercises. I have long believed that my ear was slightly above average, and that may be true for the general population. However, doing this course indicates that my ear is likely in the bottom quartile when musicians are sampled. I turned in the first assignment for the Coursera, but it remains to be seen how much I am getting out of the course.

I got to grade 1 when I was 13/14 nearly 25 years ago and stopped shortly after mostly due to circumstances outside my control.I've wanted to go back for years now and finally did last October.

Yesterday I sat my ABRSM grade 2 exam :-D

I was fine for the first couple of minutes but then I started to get really nervous and I don't know why. I think I did well enough for a pass but I keep thinking "what if I did worse than I thought?"Nothing I can do about it now but looking forward to getting the results.

Thanks everyone and I can now finally confirm that I passed with a merit and a score of 127/150. The 3 marks below a distinction are annoying me now. Never happy

Working with my teacher on Tchaikovsky's "The Sick Doll" has been a delight and an eye opener. Her attention to detail got me re-thinking my approach, made me work much harder and gave me a boost in the last few weeks before submission to this forum's recital. Whereas before, I would be happy to get the notes right somehow I doubt this is ever going to be satisfying enough in the future.

Problems with piano are 90% psychological, the other 10% is in your head.

Week 110: I find someone's chamber music arrangement (four parts) for Tonight from Westside Story. It is a short segment for Tony's solo earlier in the play, not the more famous duet with Maria. Last year, I tried to sound out this song by ear and gave up without even getting two notes. I can see why I struggled so much. There are a lot of flats. The song isn't in a traditional key. There are so many accidentals that it is hard for me to arrange the left hand parts.

I am going to audit stage for the Coursera on Musicianship. My ear is not as good as I thought it was. It is distressing to come to that realization. My singing is poor. One of the Berklee course videos addresses that feeling. So many top talents are attracted to the school, that many students start comparing and end up feeling like small fish in a big pond. Those taking the online courses tend to be even smaller fish (lesser talents). Like I said it is distressing.

The new piece Pixie Dust is nearing maturity. It isn't all that, but it has it moments. The movie Frozen came to my attention. I don't think I will learn the piano music, but there are some very good songs in that Disney movie.

Have a good week everyone. Keep those reports coming. Hard to believe the two-weeks until recital submission thread is already up. I am leaning towards may the Pancake song that I did for the songwriting Coursera. If that doesn't come together, perhaps the new Pixie Dust piece.

It's virtually impossible to get an accurate sense of how one truly sounds while playing. The mind plays tricks on us, for sure. I find that my pauses are invariably much much worse than I realize for the micro-hesitations, but not as bad for those where I'm fumbling for what seems like an eternity. For dynamics, I've got all sorts of expression in my head that just isn't translating into my fingers.

Glad to hear that your playing brain is holding you to a higher standard than your non-playing ears. I think this will serve you well!

"...when you do practice properly, it seems to take no time at all. Just do it right five times or so, and then stop." -- JimF

Weeks ago the piano teacher proposed a duet for me and my son; it's a nice version of Piazzolla "Libertango" (an easy one, on youtube I've listened sophisticated renditions played in concert).Then I got stuck because the rhythm is difficult for me, and I was sure I could not made it. My son refuses to practice together more than five minutes and this does not help. So I recorded his part on my DP and played mine with it. Great improvement! Now the piece is basically OK, we only have to work a little more on dynamics. We'll play it at the recital at the end of May.

Some of you may remember that for my birthday back in October, my husband surprised me by commissioning a piano piece to be written for me. I haven't started studying it seriously yet (too busy with all these themed recitals!), but I have read through it, and played through sections over the last few months.

Well, the pianist from one of the new music ensembles in Cleveland asked if she could premiere it at one of their concerts. So last week we got to go hear it performed live, and I was blown away. I could recognize it, but it was like hearing a completely new piece, with so many subtleties and nuances of expression that I could never have imagined, and that my poor playing couldn't even begin to express. I felt like I had just experienced magic. Ah, the difference between a professional and an amateur!

I played for almost an hour today! Which isn't that much of an achievement, except between moving 250 miles away and being swamped with work I've barely touched my piano in the past month and a half. I haven't even been around here, which I really miss!

My seemingly karmic reward seems to be that my father in law sent pictures of a lovely piano bench that he'd built as a surprise for me so I could pick the stain color and decor! I was really touched that he'd taken the time to do it.

I hope you all are doing well and that I can lurk around here more now that I'm moved into the new house.

My seemingly karmic reward seems to be that my father in law sent pictures of a lovely piano bench that he'd built as a surprise for me so I could pick the stain color and decor! I was really touched that he'd taken the time to do it.

Anne H,

Welcome back. You see what great things happen when you make it to the bench? Heck, if you play every day for a month maybe a Steinway D grand will appear in your living room. Personally, I'm shooting for six months and a Bosendorfer Imperial!

I got Gymnopedies 2 and 3 sorted and recorded. Awkward little b**gers they were too. And now I find Gymn.1 needs to be improved; it`s too fast amongst other things. But I`ve found a really good Pianoteq setting for those who use this. "Mic under Lid" gives a great, easy listening sound.

Remember that next time you hear anyone playing a Steinway grand. Go over to it and stick yer head under the lid.

Need to rejoin this on a more regular basis, as it helps me get more done. Going to try to post daily for the next week on my progress. I'm starting right now. I'll report back when I've done as much practice as I can handle.